The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Official Newspaper for Foster County
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I have never been kissed under a sprig of mistletoe. However, mistletoe is prominently featured in Christmas songs such as Frank Sinatra's "Mistletoe and Holly," "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," and more recently Justin Bieber's "Mistletoe." The magical world of Harry Potter isn't safe from mistletoe as the main character and Cho Chang learned. Is there an interesting origin story for this kiss-inducing plant or is this just a Hallmark Channel plot device? Biologically, mistletoe is a less...
We have been blessed by an unusually lovely fall in the northern Great Plains. Unfortunately, the long-range weather forecast promises that all good things must come to an end. Before winter is upon us, gardeners should consider protecting tender roses. Most hybrid tea, floribunda and grandiflora roses were bred for warmer climates and cannot survive northern winters without protection. Resourceful gardeners have devised many methods to protect tender roses. Regardless of the method, timing is...
As a horticulturist, I have seen more than my fair share of strained marriages. My favorite story was told to great effect during a funeral luncheon. The deceased had accidentally filled his lawn sprayer with glyphosate, an herbicide that kills everything, rather than a selective lawn herbicide that only kills weeds. The resulting dead lawn created more than a little marital friction as humorously recounted by his son decades later. Fortunately, the marriage survived and the story provided a mom...
Easter lilies are ubiquitous at this time of year and many people dismiss them without a second thought. However, if you knew the history and the complex production cycle, you might gain a new appreciation for this lovely white lily with trumpet-shaped flowers. Easter lilies are native to Japan’s southern islands and the bulbs were exported to the U.S. during the early 1900s. In 1919, Louis Houghton, a World War I veteran, fell in love with the beautiful flowers while he was in Japan and s...
Last week while teaching class, a student asked me to comment on a recent viral news article stating that urban agriculture generates six times more carbon than conventional agriculture. After class, I read the news article as well as the original scientific study. What I read left me perplexed and skeptical. Published in Nature Cities, several researchers from the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany, Poland and France compared the carbon footprint of large conventional fruit and vegetable farms with...
The holidays are over and your poinsettia is looking a little worse for wear. Some of the leaves are crispy and the lower canopy looks bare. Nevertheless, many people experience grief and can't part with their sad-looking poinsettias. Dakota Gardener is here to be your counselor and help you move through the grief stages from denial to acceptance. During the denial stage, people mistakenly think that poinsettias are easy to grow and will remain attractive indoors the whole year. This is not the...
The holiday season is upon us. Do you struggle to find the right gift for loved ones and friends? Do you wander aimlessly in the mall hoping that something will catch your eye? While we can’t help you with your basement-dwelling, video game obsessed nephew, Dakota Gardener is here to provide a carefully curated collection of gifts for gardeners of all ages and abilities. Your mother, whom is a little slow to standup from a kneeling position, may appreciate a folding garden kneeler bench. This i...
With the recent snowfall, winter is on my mind. The hard freeze killed our annual bedding plants and vegetables. Our hardy perennial flowers are very much alive but dormant for the season. How do our plants survive winter? Our perennial flowers survive the winter underground. Aboveground leaves freeze and die. However, the plant's crown is protected and insulated by the soil. The soil just inches below the surface remains much warmer than the air temperature. In spring, the plant's crown...
I’ve been watching a busy squirrel prepare for winter. It scurries around the neighborhood gathering acorns from all the oak trees. Like our wildlife, gardeners are busy with end of season tasks. One of the final tasks is cleaning, disinfecting and putting away tools. Quality gardening tools are not cheap and should be carefully maintained before storing. Simple cleaning is not always enough because our tools frequently come into contact with diseased garden plants that harbor bacteria, fungi o...
In my youth, I worked for a well-known Minnesota garden center. My co-workers and I would be frequently asked why a customer's dahlia, geranium or other prized ornamental plant wasn't blooming. Without fail, we would sell the customer a high phosphorus fertilizer to stimulate flower production. In my current position as a North Dakota State University Extension horticulture specialist, my job is to give objective, evidence-based recommendations to help home gardeners. Thankfully, I am not...
No Mow May is a popular conservation movement to encourage people to abstain from mowing their lawns during the month of May. The stated purpose is to allow weeds to grow and flower in the lawn to provide nectar and pollen to nourish early season pollinators such as bees and butterflies. People are surprised that NDSU Extension isn’t promoting this practice. Our organization normally encourages pollinator-friendly conservation practices. However, No Mow May lacks scientific support and is e...
The winter of 2022-23 just keeps on giving! With the snow mostly melted, our Dakota Gardener readers may notice their lawns are a mess but for vastly different reasons. Across the region, we have three different situations that have resulted in lawn damage: persistent snow cover, the 2022 drought and spring flooding. Gray Snow Mold For those that endured deep snowdrifts for what seemed like an eternity, you may see matted down, straw-colored patches of grass. A cotton-like webbing may have...
As a North Dakotan, I sometimes forget how early the spring growing season arrives for the rest of the country. During spring break, we traveled to the Washington, D.C., area. What a thrill to see our capital’s famous cherry blossoms in bloom! Traveling to warmer climates in March and April is a double-edged sword for those living in the northern U.S. Sure, it is fun to experience short-sleeve weather when everyone is wearing their down parkas back home. However, the downside is experiencing p...
It’s time to decorate our homes with the colors of the season. As the song goes: Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la. Holly has been a favorite decoration in winter celebrations for centuries. Ancient cultures saw its lively red fruits and green leaves in the dead of winter and believed holly was a symbol of long life. Kings wore crowns of holly for good luck. Holly was believed to repel witches too. I am not too worried about witches, but it is wonderful to grow h...
A friend called me because she purchased a new Christmas cactus, and it wasn’t behaving the way she expected. Based on its cactus classification, she watered sparingly and placed the plant in direct sunlight. Despite this logical care regimen, the plant began to lose its flower buds and vigor. I had to inform my friend that the Christmas cactus is a plant with a confusing or even downright deceptive identity. Yes, the Christmas cactus is in the cactus family, but you would be wrong if you envisi...
With Thanksgiving fast approaching, we turn our attention to preparing one of the year’s great feasts. The turkey is the neutral palette against which the side dishes reign supreme. Each year, I make a refreshingly tart cranberry sauce from scratch. Many of us take cranberries for granted but this fruit has a fascinating history and production method. Were cranberries served at the first Thanksgiving? No printed menu exists from the 1621 Thanksgiving in Massachusetts but it is feasible that t...
As a North Dakotan, I appreciate the end of the gardening season. By fall, I am weary of weeding gardens, watering container plantings and mowing the lawn. Having just visited Georgia, I was reminded that southern gardeners don’t get the reprieve that we do. We have the luxury of taking an extended break from garden and lawn chores. By spring, our enthusiasm is renewed and we can’t wait to dig in the soil. With our autumn freezes, it is time to put the garden and lawn to bed for the long win...
As a child, I wouldn’t eat vegetables for over a decade. My poor parents spent countless hours at the dinner table trying to convince me to eat a variety of foods. After becoming a teenager, I finally discovered the joy of eating freshly grown garden produce. Despite turning over a new leaf, I avoided trying Brussels sprouts for over 30 years because of their reputation as a stinky, mushy and bitter vegetable. One day, I was dining with a client at a restaurant in the Twin Cities. The chef s...
North Dakota is known as the Peace Garden State. However, surprisingly few North Dakotans have made the trip to visit the International Peace Garden near Dunseith, North Dakota. Straddling the border between North Dakota and Manitoba, the garden is a horticultural and historical treasure that is celebrating the 90th anniversary of its dedication. Henry J. Moore advocated for a garden to be built on the U.S.-Canadian border to commemorate the longest peaceful international border. A site was...
Deciding the optimal time to sow vegetable seeds in the garden is never easy in the northern Plains. Back-to-back blizzards in the west, flooding in the east, and 50-degree temperature swings make this year more challenging than most. The calendar approach to gardening may not work for direct sowing seeds. Gardening calendars are based on the average last frost date. The averages are calculated over several decades. The weather appears to be departing from the average this year. A more accurate...
A week ago, I came home to an unusual scene in my yard. As the sun was setting, I observed a fluffy substance resembling spider webs stretching across portions of the lawn. Were we invaded by a million spiders? Before you get the heebie jeebies, I can reassure you that I had not entered an arachnid horror movie. This white, cottony substance occurred in areas of the lawn that had been covered with snow for the entire winter. The spring melt revealed the gray snow mold that had flourished under...
Barb Laschkewitsch is a busy woman. As the trial garden manager for the North Dakota State University (NDSU) Horticulture Research and Demonstration Garden, she is busy sowing thousands of annual flowers in a 1950s era campus greenhouse. After the danger of frost has passed, the colorful flowering plants will grace the campus garden this summer on the corner of 12th Avenue and 18th Street North in Fargo. This garden is more than just a pretty place to view flowers. Laschkewitsch is engaging in...
